


mean ballerina

by lukasagitta



Series: wherever is your heart [2]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Slow Burn, i'm lulling you all into a false sense of security
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lukasagitta/pseuds/lukasagitta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is a sensitive snowflake, Jan is a princess, and T'Challa learns of the mean ballerina.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> For those unfamiliar with the Avengers Academy mobile game: AvAc is a college AU in which everyone is still a hero/villain. During the Civil War event, Tony and Steve are competing to determine which of them has the best strategy for taking down Hydra. (It's pretty silly.)
> 
> Check out [this album](http://imgur.com/a/RHFs8) if you want to see why I fell in love with this ship.
> 
> You don't need to have read the previous work in the series to understand this one.
> 
> This is unbeta'd, so please let me know if you notice any mistakes.

“Tony, that is not how you spell ‘biffles’,” Jan admonished, leaning over to jab her finger at the ‘f’ right next to the ‘b’ strung along the elastic. Gravity tugged at her sunglasses until they reached her hairline, but she made no move to fix them. “It’s b-i-f-f-l-e-s!”

“Whaaaat?” Tony scowled down at the bracelet. One half was already finished, alternating red and gold. “I thought you were joking.” With a groan, he let the beads fall from between his fingers and covered his face with his hands. “That’s so many letters.”

“When it comes to jewelry, I’m _never_ joking,” Jan said. “Biffles or bust.” Although her tone was unforgiving, it was offset by the weight of her hand on his shoulder. Times like these reminded Tony just how lucky he was to have Jan as a friend—even if she was Team Cap right now.

“Man, how is this harder than tipsy tinkering?” Tony pulled his hands away from his face and slouched over the table. Maybe once he had a bracelet that commemorated their friendship on his wrist, he wouldn’t be so quick to mope about things that didn’t matter.

And to think, Stark men were supposed to be made of iron. 

“Tipsy tinkering?”

That was definitely T’Challa’s voice. Tony pulled himself upright with a start while Jan waved at his guest with her usual level of enthusiasm.

“T’Challa!” Tony greeted, patting the empty chair beside him. “What brings you here to my humble abode?”

“Well, you invited me to your Tower, and your AI system—”

“JARVIS,” Tony interjected.

“—JARVIS told me that I could find you here,” T’Challa said, walking over to the table and settling into the chair. “However, I do not see any science being conducted right now.”

Jan went back to threading the beads through her elastic, while Tony took his time removing the ‘f’ from his. “We’re making friendship bracelets to symbolize our eternal platonic love,” she explained. There were nuances in each syllable that Tony would need to analyze later. “Do they have those in Wakanda?”

T’Challa scratched his chin. “More…subtle, perhaps, but yes, we have a similar concept,” he said. “I make a necklace every year for my sister’s birthday as a symbol of our bond.”

“Oh, so that’s what Shuri was wearing?” Tony asked, leaning towards him. “Princess Shuri, I mean.” After T’Challa gave him a curious look, he shrugged and leaned back again. “Well, like I said, I’m a fan. It looked really nice.” From the corner of his eye, he saw Jan snicker into her fist.

“I am sure that yours will look nice as well,” T’Challa said, flashing that blinding smile in Tony’s direction again. “These are quite…colorful, after all.” He scooped up a pile of beads and rummaged through them.

“Well, you know us—gotta be flashy,” Tony said, finally threading the ‘i’ through the elastic. Before he could search for an ‘f’, he felt something drop onto the back of his hand. When he looked up, T’Challa was smirking at him. Tony scowled and picked up the ‘f’ bead with his other hand. “How long were you standing there?”

“Not long,” T’Challa said. There wasn’t even a trace of guilt in his expression. “I arrived when Jan began critiquing your spelling.”

Tony heaved a sigh, fighting back a smile as he threaded the ‘f’ through. “JARVIS, why didn’t you, y’know, _inform_ me?”

“He has access to this area of the Tower, Sir,” JARVIS supplied from above. “Since he did not wish for his presence to be announced, I felt no need to do so. Would you like to change these parameters?”

“Whatever.” Tony waved his free hand and glanced at T’Challa, who was sifting through the beads again. “Hey, why don’t you make something for Shuri out of these? This isn’t exactly birthday material, like, literally, but—”

“Oooo, that would be so cute!” Jan piped up, grinning at the two of them. T’Challa studied one of the blue beads in his hand and tilted his head. “I should make one for Nat too…”

“Do you think she’d actually wear it?” Tony asked. “This _is_ the mean ballerina we’re talking about.”

“She’d _better_ if I’m the one who made it!” Jan said with a huff. She grabbed Tony’s arm and slid the bracelet over his left wrist with no amount of delicacy. Its design was simple enough—alternating yellow and black, with ‘biffles’ spelled out in between—but it made his wrist feel a lot warmer.

“Natasha is a mean ballerina?” T’Challa asked, furrowing his brows. “Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow?”

“Yup!” Jan said, beaming at him and clapping her hands together. If there was a light dusting across her cheeks, Tony wasn’t about to mention it. “Tony and I found out that she was a fancy ballerina back in Russia. And she’s mean some—well, most of the time. So—mean ballerina! But that just makes the nice moments even more special!”

T’Challa let out a burst of laughter. “I will keep that in mind,” he said. “And yes, I think I will make something for Shuri. I would not want her to feel neglected while I am away.” Before he’d even finished speaking, Tony pushed the scissors and the roll of elastic towards T’Challa.

“And uh, hey, maybe when you’re done, I could show you around my lab?” Tony suggested. An urge to duck his head came over him, but he refused to give in. ( _Stark men are made of iron_.) “It’s—it’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. And you could meet Dummy—he won the MIT science fair when I was 17, did you know that?”

T’Challa hummed as he began cutting the elastic to the appropriate length. “I had read about that, yes. I would love to meet your robot.”

When Tony turned back towards Jan, he found her resting her chin on her hand and smirking at him. “Oh, uh, you wanna come down too, Wasp?” he asked. “I upgraded some parts of your suit last night, actually. You’re gonna love—”

“Nah,” Jan said smoothly, plucking a ‘p’ from the pile. “I’ll pick it up later. I wanna give this to Nat ASAP.”

Tony had a feeling that Jan was scheming again, but T’Challa’s presence was too much of a distraction for him to summon any concern.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you need Tony, he'll be lying on the floor thinking up terrible poetry about T'Challa's eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those unfamiliar with the Avengers Academy mobile game: AvAc is a college AU in which everyone is still a hero/villain. During the Civil War event, Tony and Steve are competing to determine which of them has the best strategy for taking down Hydra. (It's pretty silly.)
> 
> Check out [this album](http://imgur.com/a/RHFs8) if you want to see why I fell in love with this ship.
> 
> The cardboard box is a reference to [this](http://imgur.com/Us4uki4).
> 
> Last thing: In my headcanon for Avengers Academy, Tony has a prosthetic hand. Except when he's [in his beach attire](http://imgur.com/umorjEu), he wears the [armor's full arm](http://imgur.com/h6qHqZW).

By the time Tony finished his friendship bracelet for Jan—he really needed to tinker with the armor some more, because both hands could benefit from improved fine motor control and there might be a doomsday scenario that required him to tie a tiny knot—T’Challa had finished his necklace for Shuri and Jan had finished her lovey-dovey bracelet for Nat.

Jan rose to her feet with a flourish, snatching Tony’s bracelet off the table. “Alright, time to convince Nat that I’m her princess,” she announced, slipping her new jewelry onto her wrist with a warm smile. Tony waited until they’d made eye contact to smile back at her. Now they matched—sort of.

“Well, you boys have fun!” Jan blew them both a kiss just before twirling around and heading for the door. Tony rolled his eyes while T’Challa offered her a parting wave.

As soon as Jan was out of sight, Tony surveyed the table. The jewelry-making process had left a mess of beads in its wake, some of which had probably landed on the floor. Normally he would put off the clean-up in the hopes that Pepper would deal with it, but it seemed poor form in front of a prince. Tony circled the table and poured the beads back into the bin pile by pile. When he could no longer see any stray beads lying on the table, he turned his efforts towards the floor, where—

T'Challa had bent over, his shirt riding up just high enough to provide a glimpse of his bare back. Tony’s eyes darted just a bit lower before he could think twice.

Once he _did_ think twice, Tony cleared his throat and stared at one of the fancy art portraits on his wall instead. Modern art sure was something else. Pepper had picked that one out—or, more accurately, Pepper had told him it was an overpriced piece of garbage, and so, he’d bought it. It made for an interesting study when he and Jan were drunk.

“Thanks for the help,” Tony said, clearing his throat again.  

T’Challa rose to his feet with a pile of beads in his hand. Arching his palm, he let them slide into the bin that Tony was still holding.

“I certainly don’t mind,” T’Challa said. “Shall we visit your lab now?”  

“Yeah!” Tony said, setting the bin down on the table. “It’s in the basement.” He headed straight for the elevator, listening to T’Challa’s soft footsteps a few paces behind him.  

The doors opened automatically as Tony approached, and the button for the basement was already lit up by the time he stepped inside. Tony leaned back against the wall. Once T’Challa entered, Tony began tapping his fingers against it.

“It knows what floor you want to go to?” T’Challa asked, stepping towards the control panel.  

“Well, sort of,” Tony said with a shrug. “JARVIS is always listening, unless I tell him not to, and he controls everything in the Tower.”

“That is…most impressive.” T’Challa turned around to face Tony just as the elevator began to descend, which meant that he definitely saw the way Tony’s face lit up at the praise.

“Uh, yeah, well, y’know, I _am_ a genius,” Tony said, staring just off to the side.

“And so modest,” T’Challa said. Though he wasn’t quite smiling, there was only amusement in his voice.  

The elevator came to a smooth stop, its doors opening as soon as it settled. Tony stepped outside and spread his arms as if he were at the next Stark Expo.

“ _This_ is where the science happens,” he declared.

On cue, JARVIS turned on the computers and projected the most recent designs.

“Isn’t the phrase ‘where the magic happens’?” T’Challa asked. His voice sounded far away as he wandered around the giant room, filled with all of Tony’s latest inventions.  

“Ech, no, I _hate_ magic,” Tony said, speed-walking to catch up to him. “It doesn’t make any _sense_ and the only explanation anyone can give is, ‘Oh, it’s magic!’ What kind of answer is that? Talk about _unsatisfying_.”

“Sounds personal.”

“You have _no_ idea,” Tony muttered. So far, the only magic-user who hadn’t driven him nuts was Loki, and even then, he was being generous. “Anyway uh, you want a tour, yeah?”  

“That would be appreciated,” T’Challa said, stopping to let Tony walk in front of him.  

“Alright, so, these are the modifications I was working on for Jan’s suit, and this is for Nat, but don’t tell her, ‘cause it’s not nearly done yet, and this is my stealth suit, _even though_ Fury says he’ll never let me go on those missions _even though_ this is way better than a _cardboard box_ , and this—” 

Ten minutes into the tour, Tony realized that while T’Challa was still right behind him and making the occasional grunt of acknowledgement, he hadn’t actually _said_ anything. 

“Uh—so, any…questions?” Tony asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Just one, for now,” T’Challa said. He pointed towards the corner behind Tony, otherwise known as Dummy’s time-out zone. “Why is that…robot arm…wearing a hat?”

“Oh, because he’s _the_ Dummy, that’s why.” Tony marched over to his robot and snatched the hat off his head, setting it on one of his many workbenches instead. “But I’d say he’s served his time by now.” Dummy chirped gleefully and wheeled around in a circle.

“He disobeyed you?” T’Challa questioned, arching a brow as he approached the pair.

“Well, not exactly. He was on fire-extinguisher duty but I _wasn’t on fire, not even a little bit_ —” Tony leveled a glare at his creation, who made a high-pitched whine and lowered his arm. “—and he doused me anyway. Totally ruined my hair this morning.” Heaving a sigh, Tony carded his fingers through said hair. “Happens a lot, but I manage.”

“I can see that.” T’Challa bent down to Dummy’s level and tilted his head. There was a moment in which neither moved, but then T’Challa patted Dummy’s arm, earning an excited whirr from the robot. “And he is also an AI?”

“Yeah. My first attempt. ‘s why he’s got a few screws loose.”

T’Challa stood up and surveyed the room once more, his gaze lingering on something off to his right. The unfinished car, maybe. “Nothing compares to the wonders of Wakanda,” T’Challa said, “but, for one man, this is quite a feat.” He said nothing more until Tony met his piercing gaze. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Well, uh, like I said, you’re welcome back any time,” Tony said quickly, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Or, well, most of the time. Sometimes I lock everyone out and it makes Pepper mad… But, y’know, since we’re science bros, we should eventually…do science together, right?”

T’Challa nodded firmly. “Of course. I have many ideas for improvements already, actually.” His face split into a grin. “Particularly regarding the mean ballerina’s weaponry.” With Tony shuffling a few steps behind him, T’Challa headed towards the elevator.

“Great! I mean.” Tony beamed at the prince. “Great. So, I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“Of course.” T’Challa smiled as he stepped into the elevator. “And thank you for the suggestion about the necklace—I am sure that Shuri will appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Tony said. He waved goodbye as the elevator doors closed around T'Challa.  

Brilliant mind, forceful and comforting voice, blinding smile, piercing gaze—

Tony was officially _doomed_.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback, especially comments, is much appreciated! I already have a lot planned for this series, but feel free to send me prompts on [my tumblr](http://lukasagitta.tumblr.com/).


End file.
